THE Wilmslow mum who cleared out the clutter from her attic, cupboards and drawers, on a reality TV show had to be restrained by producers when her bric -a-brac went up for auction.

But programme makers praised the bravery of Brenda Armstrong, after she sold a lifetime's worth of treasures in the name of reality TV.

The guest house owner sold all the silver ware, collectable china and furniture she had been hoarding for decades with a little help from the team at ITV's Everything Must Go.

After sorting the antiquated from the antiques, Brenda held a garage sale at her home in Longmeade Gardens, before taking the more expensive items to an auction house, netting herself nearly £1,000.

Assistant producer Hannah Cartledge said: "We had a lot of things working against us to begin with, the weather was very bad on the day of the house sale and it was very last minute, but Brenda and her friends put in a lot of effort and managed to pull it off. "

Presenters Adrienne and Clayton Riches kept a watchful eye over the proceedings and helped to identify items that would fetch a good price at auction. But all the hard work and restraint at parting with her treasured items could have come undone at the auction, as Brenda bravely fought her impulse to buy, buy, buy.

Hannah said: "We had such fun with them at the auction. We thought we would have to sew their hands into their pockets as they kept wanting to bid for everything."

"But Brenda was very brave - she had to part with a beautiful dresser that belonged to her mother and she was very sad to see it go."

After a lifetime of saving Royal Doulton sets for her daughters' weddings and storing her best china and silver ware, unused, under the stairs, Brenda admitted it was a wrench to see it all go in one day.

"It's very hard to get rid of things that it took me so much time to acquire," she said.

"I've been saving all these things for my daughters when they get married, but times have changed and they don't want things like that anymore. It was time to let it go."